Indian Army has domination over border with Pakistan: Jaitley

New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS) Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Friday said the Indian Army has “domination” over the Indian-Pakistan border, including through deployment of radars, sensors and other surveillance.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, Jaitley said securing the border was a “continuous process” and there is not a task that is incomplete.

“The Indian Army has its domination over the border,” Jaitley said in Question Hour.

“Indian Army has constructed an Anti Infiltration Obstacle System (AIOS) along the Line of Control (LC) and International Border (IB) in Jammu & Kashmir, under its operational control. Radars, Sensors, Thermal Imagers etc. along with surveillance have been incorporated on this fence to detect and intercept infiltration by terrorists, AIOS is further strengthened by Deployment of troops and construction of defence works based on threat perception for an effective multi-tiered counter infiltration grid,” Jaitley said.

“The Line of Control and IB are safe,” the Minister said.

He added that there were 228 ceasefire violations along the LoC last year, and 221 ceasefire violations along the IB under the BSF.

The Minister said there were attempts to increase infiltration along the LoC this year, and by August 1, there were 285 such attempts.

In his written reply to the question, the Minister said appropriate retaliation to the ceasefire violations and other tactical incidents by the Pakistan Army, as required, is carried out by the Indian Army.

“All the forward posts are adequately strengthened to withstand enemy fire. Besides, there are well-established Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to safeguard against enemy fire to minimize own casualties,” Jaitley said.

“Further, the areas along the borders are kept under surveillance by regular patrolling by troops and other aerial, optronic and electronic means”.